Hotel Soft Openings Explained

In the hotel business, a soft opening, or soft launch is an unofficial opening, usually held with little publicity, weeks or months before the official grand opening.

During such soft openings, the hotel may run at reduced capacity, perhaps only opening up certain floors or wings of the property, and in some cases, certain facilities, such as the pool or spa may not be available or only partially functioning. Room service might also be a little slow.

Find us on Facebook for the latest updates on new hotels in Thailand as well as Facebook only specials

Soft openings serve two purposes. The first is a training period to get staff until staff become accustomed to the regular day to day requirements of running a hotel so that they are prepared for the rush when the fully publicised grand opening is held. Many problems will be ironed out during soft openings and the hotel may discover bottlenecks they may not have been anticipating.

Hotels also love soft openings because they provide an early source of funds in the crucial early months of operation. Feedback from guests is also often keenly sought.

Rates during soft openings are often greatly reduced from the rack rate, in order to compensate for any inconveniences guests may experience while the staff work out the kinks in running the hotel or resort. An example of such inconveniences might be that room service may take a little longer than expected, or the pool may not be open yet; there may even be some construction sounds as the finishing touches are being applied to the hotel. In other cases, the buildings and facilities are complete, but the staff are not yet fully trained/prepared.

The photo above was taken at 2:10 pm last December 17, a week before Christmas at the Regent Cape Panwa in Phuket. We were lucky in that during this soft opening the pool was fully functioning. (I’ve stayed at hotels during pre-opening where the pool was full, but the hotel was still working on the PH. levels so guests weren’t allowed in.) There were hardly any guests there and we pretty much had the pool like this all to ourselves all day every day. The spa wasn’t ready and some rooms were still under construction. Also, only one of the restaurants was functioning.

Soft openings can be a great deal for people looking to stay at luxurious hotels and resorts for a fraction of the cost if they are willing to put up with some possible inconveniences, but they can also be a gamble. I would always highly recommend contacting the hotel directly and asking them exactly what is and what isn’t available, asking specifically about anything that is important to you (pool, spa, kids club etc).

Related posts:

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 15th, 2013 at 12:24 pm and is filed under News.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Some people travel for the love of seeing the world, others choose to travel to experience the world as a native of that country. Thailand combines the unique experience of luxury living with authentic day to day work of its citizens. At this Four Seasons resort in Chiang Mai , you’ll be able to work […]

Even in a city with some truly fantastic hotel options, the Park Hyatt Bangkok stands out among its peers. Amanda Levete’s AL A design house teamed up with local Pi Design to create a unique appearance for the exterior of the hotel, with a shape inspired by the number eight. The Park Hyatt boasts a […]

Great news for Hyatt fans traveling to Thailand. Hyatt announced changes to their award chart this week, with the number of World of Hyatt points required to redeem a free night changing for 259 hotels throughout the world. While there is a pretty even split between the number of hotels that will require more points […]

As of February 2nd, Phuket announced that a new tourist attraction based on the histories of Thai mythologies has opened. It is located in the Central Floresta mall and has a Tribhum theme, with three distinct themes; the Underwater World, the Silver Forest World and the magic Forest World. The capacity of the new attraction […]

A thick glass covered flooring, atop a high place, for the purpose of standing, walking, ogling and testing one’s ability to withstand heights, it’s not a new concept. However, the newest skywalk in Bangkok, as the concept is called, is being billed as the biggest ever. It’s located in Thailand, specifically atop the Mahanakhon building, […]